No politics behind water outages – Estwick

That was how Minister of Water Resource Management Dr David Estwick today explained the fact that the majority of the areas most affected by the ongoing water outages were in constituencies held by the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP).

Dr Estwick told a news conference at his Graeme Hall, St Michael office that people of St Joseph, St Peter, St Thomas, St John and St Andrew were experiencing water shortages because they lived in high elevation areas.

“You cannot fool around with science . . . you can’t fool around with physics, that is what it is. The areas are in the high elevation areas. High elevations areas . . . when the rain falls, it don’t stay up there, it does run downhill and go down to the ocean and we catch it there,” Dr Estwick said, explaining that 19 of the island’s 24 wells were located on the coast.

The minister said it was unfortunate that some people would suggest politics was behind the outages, instead of looking at the reality.

In addition to the elevation, Dr Estwick said insufficient rainfall to replenish the wells and reservoirs contributed to the water shortages.

“Wells and reservoirs serving the north of the country have had a reduced pumping capacity of two million to 2.2 million gallons per day in this worse situation. And that is pumping capacity to St Joseph, St Thomas, St Andrew, St Peter, St John . . . and many of them are showing strong signs of salt intrusion,” he disclosed.

The minister identified wells and reservoirs at The Whim, Villa Maria, Trents, Heymans, Ashton Hall and Allendale as those affected by salinity.

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